


In plain sight

by Wanu



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, English isn't my first language so sorry, me and my weird ideas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-13 15:24:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14115273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wanu/pseuds/Wanu
Summary: From the very early age the Duck triplets had known their family wasn’t that ordinary.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know there is already couple Atla AU in this fandom, but when you get an idea, you need to use that idea. That's my motto

From the very early age the Duck triplets had known their family wasn’t that ordinary. 

The one of the most obvious things was how the three of them had a same birth day. That was what being triplet meant after all, and to the three boys it was the most natural thing in the world. But they had quickly learned that even though other children often had just as many or even more siblings as they had, they were almost always born at different date or year than the other one.

The second thing that separated the boys from the most kids was their lack of mother or father. Of course they knew that they weren’t the only orphans in the world and there were kids who lacked one parent -though both of these cases were more common among older kids who were born during the war- and then there were others who had as many as four of them. The boys had their Uncle Donald though, and in their opinion, he was better than any father could ever be.

But the most unique thing in their family wasn’t something you could guess from the first glance. After all, it was impossible to tell only from look is someone was a bender or not. And in the Duck family; all four of them had born with the gift to bend an element under their will. The fact itself wasn’t that unusual; there were plenty of families full of benders, but usually they all members were able to bend only one type of element, or in some rare cases when the parents came from different nations, two.

But the Duck triplets... Well, each of them had an ability to bend an element the two others couldn’t.

From three of them, Louie had been the lucky one. He was a waterbender, a natural prodigy to top of that. If only he had been more interested in training his skills, instead using his bending to make his life easier and creating new ways to make money. Donald often claimed the boy to be like a river on sunny day, relaxed and flexible, never hurrying anywhere because why to rush at the destination when the trip to there was what made it all worth it.

Huey’s bending was a bit harder to explain. And harder to accept by the most people he met. After all, it wasn’t that long ago when the Fire Nation had tried to submit the rest of the world under its rule. You see, Huey was a firebender, just like his grandmother, or at least that was what Uncle Donald claimed. The boys had never meet their grandparents, they had died when Uncle Donald had been around their age, leaving him to be raised by the boys’ great-grandmother, Grandma Duck, a sweet old woman living in a small rural village on Earth Kingdom who the triplets saw far too rarely. Her son had married Hortense when the war had been at its most violent state, making the boy’s question the truthfulness of the claims of their grandmother being a citizen of the conquering nation, but according to their uncle the love sometimes worked in weird ways.

But even Huey’s bending was normal compared to Dewey’s, the middle child of the family. He possessed a gift only handful of people had in the post-war world. Airbending.

After the Avatar had died, Fire Nation had committed almost complete Air Nomad genocide that only lucky few had been able to escape before figuratively disappearing under the ground for hiding. For years, people believed that the fourth nation was completely gone, but after the next Avatar had ended the war, many of the remaining offspring of the original Air Nomads had come out from hiding, settling once again in the empty Temples or creating completely new communities of their own.

Uncle Donald said he wasn’t sure where Dewey’s bending had come from. It was possible their father was a descendant of an Air Nomad or maybe there were some older genes down in Duck side of their family line. And despite the fact that finding an airbending master was almost as hard as coming face to face with a real spirit, Donald had managed to get his hands on enough bending scroll to teach his nephew to control his element just as skilfully as his brothers bended their owns.

So, as expected, Dewey and Huey learned to avoid using their bending on public places, the first one because of the almost fanatic reactions it caused on some people, the later because of the hate many still showed towards anything related to Fire Nation, despite the fact the boys were technically citizens of Earth Kingdom. Louie usually followed his brothers’ example, but he was still the one who used his bending most freely from three of them. Their uncle tried to encourage the boys to embrace their gifts with their full potential, repeating again and again that every type of bending was just as natural as the other one, but he still understood his nephews’ decisions to keep low profile.

The first ten years of the triplets’ life were quite nomadic in nature, travelling from city to city and town to town on their uncle’s faithful houseboat, so he could find yet another weird job that he usually lost in matter of weeks or even days. The boys didn’t complain though. Despite his struggles, Uncle Donald managed to keep the roof over their heads, food on the table and his nephews fully clothed. And besides, how many kids of their age had a chance to see the world so much as they did? They had seen almost every single port on Earth Kingdom’s coast, visited both Poles almost once a year and had even been on Fire Nation couple times. All in all, the live was good. Maybe a bit boring, but good never the less

But everything had changed when they met their Uncle Scrooge.

Of course the boys had heard about Scrooge McDuck before, the man was well-known around the world as the fearless adventurer, cunning treasure hunter and the richest merchant there was. He was the head of clan McDuck, an old but minor noble house from Fire Nation, making the tale of Grandma Hortense’s skills as firebender way more believable, her being Scrooge’s -who himself was a non-bender- younger sister.

Meeting Scrooge had been a complete work of fate, Uncle Donald had gotten a job from somewhere he had seen unsuitable for children and being hesitant to leave the three of them alone for unknown time without adult’s supervision, he hadn’t had other choice but take an advance of the favour his uncle, who Donald hadn’t talked to in ten years, owned him.

To say that that Scrooge was thrilled to meet his great-nephews would be the fattest lie anyone had ever made. The bitter old merchant had no idea how deal with children so exited to get to know another member of their family, so he had decided just to ignore the problem and locked the boys in one of the many empty rooms found in his large manor with pouch of old glass marbles as their only entertainment.

In the end the boys managed to get their new-found uncle to warm up for them, but not before they had become friends with Webby, an earthbender around their age, whose granny worked as the manor’s housekeeper. Through her the triplets learned untold tales about their Uncle Donald and his past life as Scrooge’s companion on his adventures.

And most importantly, they learned something world shaking about their mom. 

It all started when they had found a torn painting hidden at the back of the room that worked as storage for junk Scrooge had collected during his travels. 

The painting itself wasn’t that special. It was just a portrait of the younger Uncle Scrooge with their mom and Uncle Donald, all of them dressed in traditional Fire Nation robes. But there was one detail that gained their complete attention. The blue arrows of the master airbender tattooed on Della Duck’s shaved forehead.

The very same tattoos that only one person had possessed during the years of war.

The Avatar

In the hindsight, it had made sense. Their mother being the Avatar would explain why their uncle had been so reluctant to talk about his sister and why he had lied not to know where Dewey’s airbending had come from. After all, the Avatar had a lot of enemies, and it wasn’t unheard for them trying to get a revenge on the Master of Four Elements through their loved ones.

And then there was a fact how their mother had disappeared around the same time as the last sightings of the Avatar had been made. Many claimed that the Avatar had died soon after the end of the war and was currently a child training towards the mastery of all four element, but there were rumours of them travelling in the Spirit World and never returning.

Needless to say, the four children made a plan to find out what had happened all those years ago.

The process they made was slow. They were trying to dig up the secrets buried almost decade ago without letting Scrooge or Mrs Beakley to find out what they were doing. The adults would only try and stop them from finding the truth, claiming them to be too young to understand or some other stupid excuse the adults liked to use. 

Thankfully the adventures Scrooge kept taking them even after Uncle Donald had returned from his job trip, offered the four children plenty of chances to sneak away to question the village’s elders and spiritual leaders if they knew anything about the whereabouts of the Avatar. 

They had only little luck, but some of the people they talked with still managed to recognize Scrooge as an old travelling companion of the Avatar, a proof that the boys saw as big enough evidence to prove their earlier suspicions true and even more determined to find out what had happened to their mother.

But when you keep sniffing around long enough, you will eventually get in the trouble. And what bigger is the secret you are trying to reveal, the bigger is the trouble you will find yourself in. 

Needless to say, the mystery as big as trying to find the lost Avatar had one of the biggest consequences you could imagine. 

The only mistake the kids had made was to ask one too many questions in wrong place at wrong time, leading the enemies of the Avatar to find out the purpose of their self-given mission. And before they could realise what was going on, the triplets and their friend found themselves tied up and surrounded by real, dangerous criminals who had no intentions to let a punch of children to bring the Avatar back from hiding.

If given enough time, the boys and Webby could have probably escaped on their own, probably with some wounds and in the worst case with couple broken bones. They were all benders after all, and even though none of them was the Avatar, they still had all four elements on their side.  
But it never needed to come to that, because Uncle Donald had come to safe them.

The boys had never seen their uncle so angry in their entire life. Sure, he had inherited the famous McDuck temper that his father’s just as explosive personality had done nothing to ease, leading to almost humours fits of rage whenever Donald lost his temper, but it was nothing compared to pure rage the boys were now witnessing. 

There was literal smoke rising from his nostrils and small flames were spit out every heavy exhale the man released as he marched towards the criminals who wisely lowered themselves on defensive bending stances or, in case of some really smart ones, run away as fast as they could.

He was like a raging dragon, come to destroy those who had stolen his most priced treasure.

“Give me back my boys!” the man bellowed with booming voice, sending the walls of burning fire towards the criminals who had barely enough time to shield themselves from being burned alive. But Donald wasn’t even close to be finished with them. He kicked and hit the air over and over, sending the blast after blast towards the fools who had dared to hurt his family. The only time he stopped his attack for longer than a heartbeat was when he managed to make his way at the kids’ side where he grabbed hold on the rope that tied them together, burning it just enough it to snap in half.

“Go back to the boat” Donald snapped, his rage towards their capturers burning still way too hot for him to use any gentler tone. Later, he would worry around the triplets like a mother hen, treating even smallest scratch like it was a painful battle wound, but now wasn’t time for that.

“But Uncle Donald” 

“Now!” he commanded with voice that left no room for arguing before knocking the in coming rock away with burning fist like weighted nothing at all.

“I can’t believe you never told me how awesome firebender your uncle is!” Webby complained with huge exited smile as they rushed through the woods towards the safety of the houseboat, completely unaware of the look shared between the triplets.

Because there was one big problem.

Uncle Donald they knew couldn’t control the fire at all.

That just wasn’t something waterbenders could do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If this fic ended up confusing someone
> 
> Dewey: Airbender  
> Huey: Firebender  
> Louie: Waterbender  
> Webby: Earthbender
> 
> Della: Airbender  
> Triplets' Father: ? (Water Tribe)  
> Donald: the Avatar (Technically an Air Nomad, but pretended to be a waterbender for past 10 years)
> 
> Hortense: Firebender  
> Scrooge: Non-bender  
> Matilda: Airbender
> 
> Downy (Mama McDuck): Air Nomad  
> Fergus (Papa McDuck): Fire Nation noble  
> Quackmore: Non-bender from Earth Kingdom  
> Granma Duck: Non-bender from Earth Kingdom
> 
> Because Donald has never been that good with people and not everyone is able to understand him when he's speaking, Della was more often the one doing the talking and the more public appearances instead of her brother. This caused a little confusion during the war, leading many to believe that Della was the Avatar instead of Donald.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Avatar Donald and how he ended up living the live as nomadic waterbender and single parent to his sister's sons

Donald had always been sure that him becoming the Avatar had been the biggest accident the Avatar Spirits had ever done. He wasn’t a people person, couldn’t even talk in a way most of them could understand and got angered even by the smallest word that could be seen as an insult. Spirits seemed to like him well enough, but Donald had never been that good with the whole meditating and going to the Spirit Wold thing. 

Della on the other hand… She was a very charismatic person who everyone loved and listened. Sure, there was more spiritual skills in old shoes than her, but as a bender she was the best there had been for centuries.

That was why it hadn’t been that hard to make people believe she was the Avatar instead of her brother.

Both Della and Donald were great actors when needed and looked similar enough to make people mistake one to another from the far distance, especially if Della hid her arrow, like Donald had done ages ago, and hair under the cap. She also liked to practise the bending forms with her brother even though earth- or firebending moves had hardly any effect when used by an Air Nomad, making her fairly skilled with art of faking bending she hadn’t been born with.

Uncle Scrooge had never been the big fan of the twins’ act, often complaining how Donald should take the full credit from thing he had done, but unlike the twins he also saw more tactical advance in the little con they had unintentionally created.

After all, if everyone believed that Della was the Avatar, Donald would be much safer from those who wished to capture to prevent him or her from interfering the course of war or those few insane enough to want to end the reincarnation cycle all together.

On hind sight, the misunderstanding they had half purposely created was probably the reason why Della had disappeared.

It had happened only couple years after they had managed to end the war and lifted the new Fire Lord on his throne. Creating a peace agreement had been easier than anyone had expected. The Fire Nation’s crown prince had been more eager to return the world’s natural balance than his father partly because, ironically, he had turned out to be the younger half-brother of Donald’s previous life. Donald had a feeling the two brother's relation ship hadn't been the best and the Fire Lord acted way too friendly towards him time to time, but otherwise the Duck twins found themselves enjoying the new Lord's company.

Della had taken as her job to travel around the Four Nations, helping to rebuild what was destroyed and spearing the word of peace, while Donald had taken care of the political mess that the arguing leaders created while trying to decide how to handle the colonies, some of which were already over hundred years old, and what were the war reparations Fire Nation should pay. Earth King had been fairly harsh with his demands while Water Tribe Chiefs mostly wanted ships and free food supplies and those few Air Nomads they had managed to find asked Fire Nation to rebuild the Air Temples they had destroyed.

During those years, the twins saw each other only couple times. Della was always on the road, only settling down on one place long enough to have the needed care for the birth of her triplet sons (she had never told them who the father was, but Donald swore he had seen a man on the North Pole who shared suspiciously strong resemblance with his nephews) before running away to take care of ‘just one more job’ Scrooge had for her before settling down.

She never returned

Donald had blamed his uncle who had given his sister the job, Scrooge had blamed Donald for being a coward and endangering his sister's life with the false tittle of Avatar. Both claimed the other to be wrong and yet, both could not but believe the other’s words to be true.

So when the political mess was over and the world was calm enough for Donald to believe that the Four Nations could survive without the guidance of the Avatar, he bought a simple Water Tribe ship, took the nephews his sister had given under his care and disappeared on the sea, the only place that had no ties on his family or the painful memories he now carried in his heart.

And yet, Donald was unable to give up his past completely. All those scrolls he had used to study different forms of bending were hidden under the deck alongside the staff he had gotten from his Aunt Matilda at age of seven when he and Della had started their flying lessons, the same one he later ended up giving to Dewey when the boy was old enough. He also kept taking care of the problems between spirits and humans whenever he came across one during his travels under the false tittle of spiritually gifted monk, never as Avatar.

Him becoming an Avatar had always been just an accident created by the bad luck that had followed Donald even before his birth. Besides, in modern day the concept of Avatar was just a poor excuse people used to move their responsibilities on someone else’s shoulders. It was an unnecessary job that only made one person and their family’s life dangerous and miserable. Surely the world could survive the next 50 or so years without their professional scapegoat? And if they couldn’t, too bad for them.

Donald was done with being the Avatar and the world had to deal with it.

Besides

It was the best way to keep his boys safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me after finishing the chapter: (remembers that Mickey and Oswald are sometimes called Walt Disney's children) Did I just make Walt Disney this universe's version of Ozai? What is wrong with me?!  
> Also me: An evil Fire Lord Walt Disney? This was probably best accident I have ever done.
> 
> On another note. Professional Scapegoat is one of the (many) in one story only jobs Donald has had in Donald Duck comics published here in Finland. I can’t remember who wrote/draw the story or its actual name, so I can’t give you more details
> 
> (I’m not sure if I’m even using correct English idiom for that matter… Scapegoat as in a person who takes or has given the blame from something they haven’t done)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For every bender, there is the first time
> 
> Donald... He has four of those

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter feels a bit broken

No matter in what nation they were born, every bender had their special “how I bended the first time” story.

To most people it was a silly accident that they couldn’t even remember, but their parents surely brought it up every time the conservation came even vaguely close the topic, both embarrassing and annoying their child in the process.

But just like every childhood story, the first bending was an important part of the person’s identity, something that made them who they were, but also a moment that was believed to tell how powerful their gift would grow to be. Many claimed the stronger was your first act of bending, the greater bender you were expected to become.

Della Duck was two years old when she created huge tornado in their living room just by playing with her windmill toy.

Three weeks later, Donald sneezed and ended up hanging on the chandelier.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The twins were taught from very early age to keep their bending hidden. Airbending was dangerous gift to have in the world where they grew up, especially to someone as young as they were. They were born the same year as the Fire Nation’s Avatar had died and everyone knew that the next Avatar was supposed to be an Air Nomad.

Technically the twins were citizens of both Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, but their mama’s mother had been an Air Nomad, the reason why they could bend their element in the first place. And if the rulers of their mother’s homeland ever found out what they were, the twins wouldn’t live to see another day, no matter how well they could proof neither of them was the Avatar.

It still didn’t mean that they never used their bending. Their Aunt Matilda was an airbender as well and had happily taken the role as the twins’ master. She was a good teacher; patient but strict enough to keep the two lively kids in control, yet possessed that famous carefree spirit and humour Air Nomads were so famous for, making every lesson more like a game.

She taught them everything she could, but Matilda was still a nomad by nature and wanted by Fire Nation. So she left soon after teaching them the basics and left them to master their bending through scrolls she had inherited from the twins’ grandmother. Matilda still visited them at least once a year to see her little sister and see how the twins were doing with their studies.

And then, on the summer when the twins turned 15, it was Aunt Matilda who gave two of them the tattoos of true master.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Donald’s mama was a firebender with even more fierce temper. A terrible combination in every way you could imagine. Every time Hortense got one of her famous rage fits or ended up in shouting match with her dear husband, which were time to time even more infamous, Hortense Duck would literally have smoke coming out of her ears and spit flames out of her mouth. It was a sight that could send even bravest man to run away like a coward, but according to Quackmore, it was the moment his wife was the most beautiful being in the world.

And yet, the only time Donald ever saw his papa to cry was when the five-year-old Donald got another temper tantrum and started to spit fire the first time in his life.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It wasn’t that hard to find Donald a firebending master. Hortense might be a great bender, but her temper made the woman a terrible teacher, especially when her son had inherited the same temperament as her.

They tried the lesson exactly one time and it took less than five minutes for mother and son to burn down four trees and the two of them ended up not talking to each other for almost three days.

That was why they send Donald, and Della who didn’t want to be separated from her brother, to live with their Uncle Scrooge for a while. He was a head of a minor noble house in the Fire Nation, and even though Scrooge himself was a non-bender, it was easy enough to make people to believe in the lie his nephew was just a firebender from colony in Earth Kingdom.

So like every other son from noble family, Donald was enrolled in one of the Nation’s best bending school where he was quickly branded as a prodigy and he graduated with top grades as one of the youngest master there had ever been.

No one never even joked about the possibility of him being the Avatar.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Technically Donald was born as an Air Nomad, but his heart and soul had always belonged to the sea. He had been sold the very moment Quackmore had taken his son fishing on the nearby lake the very first time. The sound of the waves and the rocking of the boat under his feet had a great calming effect on him, helping the small boy to keep his otherwise explosive anger under control.

And best of all things was how during those fishing trips, Donald didn’t have to share his papa with anyone else.

Donald was six-year-old when, after months of secret practice under the safety of his blanket, he managed to freeze the water in his mug the very first time.

It wasn’t till couple days later he told anyone about it.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finding an excuse to send Donald to study under waterbending master had been the hardest. Donald had suggested he could just study waterbending from the scrolls like they did with airbending, but Uncle Scrooge had vetoed the whole idea immediately.

Donald needed to be taught by a real bender and that’s it.

In the end, they managed to send Donald to the South Pole under fake name and just as fake life to tell those who would come to ask. This time Della couldn’t come with him, but it was perfectly fine for Donald. 

Water had always been his own thing after all.

The months Donald spent on the Pole studying the art of waterbending and Water Tribe’s culture were the best time of his young life. He learned how to sail through even strongest storms, how to get your living from the ocean and shape water with grace he lacked with the element he had first learned. During those long, yet so short months he crafted friendships he would forever cherish and thanks to them, his confidence on himself and his skills grew in ways that turned the timid, self-conscious duckling into a proud man who accepted his flaws and knew how to use them to his advance. 

When Donald finally returned to his uncle’s mansion and started his travels his mission to bring peace in the broken world, he never stopped wearing the traditional blues of the Water Tribe.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As a child, Donald had loved spending summers on Grandma Duck’s farm. The peace of the Earth Kingdom’s countryside was so different compared to their home village near a big city and the forests around the Grandma’s farm were more than enough to satisfy the curiosity and thirst for adventure in even the wildest child. 

Donald only started to hate the farm after it become his home.

The days were too quiet and full of work while the nights were way too dark and filled with way too many strange noises. And the kids of the nearby village, well they were nice enough but even closely as nice as the friends Donald was forced to leave behind. Besides, they all seemed to like Della better than him, leaving the other twin to sulk on the side lines while his sister was having fun.

He was lonely and missed their Mama and Papa and hated everything that reminded him of them.

But the worst thing was, Donald wasn’t allowed to bend.

Or more correctly, Donald was only allowed to bend earth, the only element he still failed to bend under his will.

Because as far as anyone on this side of the Earth Kingdom knew, Elvira Duck’s grandson was nothing more than an earthbender whose gift had jumped over couple generations.

In the end, the kicker Donald needed was for Della getting almost buried alive by an avalanche that the spring rains caused on the road between the farm and the village. 

Grandma enrolled him on the after school bending classes that very same day. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No matter in what nation they were born, every bender had their special “how I bended the first time” story.

Louie Duck was three when he froze the entire lake, all the way from the surface to the bottom muds, on which shore he had been playing on.

His older brother Huey had discovered his bending when he had started to breath fire during one of his many temper tantrums just 5 months earlier.

Six weeks later, Dewey sneezed and ended up hanging on the tip of the ship's mast on his way down from the clouds.

Donald just thanked the spirits that none of them had ended up being an earthbender.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might return to add more chapters after the series return or I come up another idea for this story.  
> But for now: Thanks to all those who read this and hopefully you enjoyed it.


End file.
